The Hurt

Dixie Down

Virgil Caine well it is my nameAnd I worked on that Danville train‘til Stoneman’s cavalry came and tore up the tracks againIn the winter of ‘65We were hungry just barely aliveBy May the tenth Richmond fellIt was a time I remember ah so well

The night they drove old Dixie downAnd the bells were ringingThe night they drove old Dixie downAnd all the people were singingThey went na na na...

Back with my wife in TennesseeWhen one day she called to meVirgil quick come out and seeThat can’t be the Robert E. LeeNow I don’t mind chopping woodAnd I don’t care that the money’s no goodTake what you need and leave the restThey should have never taken the very best

The night they drove old Dixie downAnd the bells were ringingThe night they drove old Dixie downAnd all the people were singingThey went na na na...

Like my father before meI am a working manAnd like my brother before meI take a rebel standEighteen proud and braveA Yankee laid him in his graveI swear by the mud below my feetYou can’t raise a Caine when he’s in defeat

The night they drove old Dixie downAnd the bells were ringingThe night they drove old Dixie downAnd all the people were singingThey went na na na...

The Hurt

If your hands could be like anythingThey’d be like a burning flameAnd if you think that you know me BoyWell you better believe we’re not the sameBecause I know who you areAnd I know how little boys workThey can’t wash you in the river BoyBut they can’t wash away the hurtThey can’t wash away the hurt

And if I could just taste you BoyI bet you taste like the sweetest caneAnd if they follow you down into the trailsI’ll bet they’ll see your dust trail floating in the rain

Well he came walking down a moonlight trailWith the water by the roadAnd he just smiled at me as I unbuttoned down his coatSay you got to be like meWell then you’ll understand where they all went wrongAnd he just smiled and he sang me a songSaid I know who you are and I know how little girls workThey can wash you in the river Girl but they can’t wash away the hurtYou can’t wash away the hurt

Well he came walking down the moonlight trailWith the water by the roadAnd he just grinned and I unbuttoned down his coatSay you got to be like meWell then you’ll understand where they all went wrongAnd he just smiled and he sang me a songSaid I know who you are and you know I love your workThey can wash us in the river Boy but they can’t wash away the hurtYou can’t wash away the hurt

Sweet Boy

I can’t right any more wrongs tonightAnd I can’t put you in a song to make it feel rightThe days and hours turn the moonBut you’re still the brightest star shining through

Every morning I wake up with loveSide to side from head to toe and aboveYou told me I might need to find someone newBut all the white in the world it couldn’t add up to be you

Hey Sweet BoyWon’t you let me be with youHey my sweet boyJust let me be with you

Oh the white falls downOn this sleepless girl’s townOh and without youIs a world without lightA sky with no flightMy life without white

Hey Sweet BoyWon’t you let me stay with youHey my sweet boyI just want to be with you

I can’t fight any more wrongs tonightWrapped up in your love and turned white

"I can't remember exactly when Amanda came up with the concept, so it's better to ask her about its genesis. But like the previous album, Jade, it is a project that spanned years. Amanda is prolific, and the challenge is to keep up with her in the recording process. Both of us approach that process as the most important thing that we do, the creation of art. That takes a lot of care, a lot of preparation, and a lot of time. And don’t ask me to master an album in a week. After the long process of laying down the tracks, editing, and mixing, a few months is more like it. I have to live with it over time and in different listening environments. Also, ear fatigue is a real thing and has to be avoided. Marathon mastering sessions are not where it’s at. In any case, Amanda is in the habit of coming up with these wonderful songs with great arrangement and presentation ideas. We always find ourselves with a backlog of material, a real treasure trove. At some point, after Jade, and in the process of constantly recording more material, a new project coalesced, evolved, transformed, and finally came into shape. A theme--more than one theme--was running through many of the new songs. And something was in the air anyway, the sesquicentennial of The Great American Trauma. A lot of elements were mixing from a variety of perspectives—lovers, soldiers, slaves, farmers, politicians, abolitionists. For years, I have taught the history of the blues, and have been increasingly involved in the pedagogy of students of African-American heritage. I had always been infatuated with the Ken Burns' documentary and still can't watch it without crying when I hear the words of Sullivan Ballou. I have a colleague, Dr. Marc Sable, who is an Abraham Lincoln expert. One day my mother casually picked up a book from her sister's coffee table, a biography of Mary Todd Lincoln, and has been hooked ever since. My association with the theatre department of my institution reminds me of the history of the Booth family. Looking out my office window, there was an old barn whose foundation was laid by slaves. I walk in a campus where once strode Jefferson Davis on one hand, and the anti-slavery Alexander Campbell, founder of the college on the other hand. And the faces in the portraits of soldiers, generals, slaves, the President… As my student and advisee, Amanda experienced all that as well. She also felt it pouring over artifacts, documents, and photographs kept by her grandparents. Together we researched and traveled to Civil War battle sites, and on and on. A complicated story wove its threads throughout the project that had taken us on a journey that kept unfolding through processes of inspiration, composition, arranging, performing, recording, preparing the graphics, and everything else involved with the creation of what was to be called The Hurt. I am not going to recite details of the story here, neither will Amanda. The album says it all for the listener who hears." - Pandel Collaros (producer)